Dao Thi Quynh: a Survivor’s Story: From Temporary Work to Trafficking

• Ha-Thanh Nguyen •

The damage made to Quynh’s right foot and leg.

From a distance, it is hard to imagine that the same young girl who loves to sing along to Phi Nhung songs while drifting off to sleep next to me, chatters away about her lifelong dreams of opening up an orphanage for homeless children in Vietnam, and gets excited about eating pizza is the same young woman who has endured a type of pain and suffering most of us will never encounter in all of our lives. Up close, one can see the physical deformity of this young individual’s left hand, right foot and leg, and the pain that comes from not knowing if her hand and leg will ever be the same again. Innocent yet fearless, maimed yet full of life, Dao Thi Quynh is a former Vietnamese foreign worker to Taiwan who has touched many lives, including mine through her amazing strength, survival, and bright outlook on life as she optimistically says things like, “ever since the second grade, it was my dream to open up an orphanage for the homeless children I saw on the streets where I lived”. Regarding her as my own little sister, the most difficult part of telling Quynh’s story is imagining that something so horrific could realistically happen to another human being, let alone someone I have come to adore and admire with the greatest affection.

At first glance, Dao Thi Quynh is like every other Vietnamese victim of Taiwan’s foreign labor exporting system that walks through the doors of the Vietnamese Bride & Migrant Workers’ Office (VBMWO)- exploited, cheated out of wages, misinformed, abused and finally forced to be repatriated back to her country. Aside from the physical damages that have left a permanent impression on both her mind and body, Quynh exemplifies an extremely common case of human trafficking in Vietnamese laborers arriving in Taiwan since 1999.

In brief, Quynh came to Taiwan in December 2003 under contract to work as a domestic helper after paying an employment agency a brokerage fee of $1,000. Instead of finding her employment as a domestic helper, Quynh was taken to the broker’s home to work as a caretaker for the broker’s father. This was the first violation of her contract to work strictly as a domestic helper for an employer, rather than the broker. Thus, the violation of the contract constitutes as human trafficking according to the U.N.’s definition of “trafficking in persons” as “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of...the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability...for the purpose of exploitation...[including] forced labor or services”. The second violation of her labor contract occurred when Quynh was taken to her new employer’s home to work in their plastics manufacturing factory. In addition to being trafficked and forced to labor in a factory rather than as a domestic helper, Quynh was also working excessive hours with very little information on how to handle the plastics machinery. Laboring from 5:30 am until 8:30 pm everyday without rest and forced to eat while working, Quynh continued to work for a full month and 17 days without pay. These conditions of fatigue and abuse led to an accident, in which her hand was caught in the machinery crushing her middle and index fingers, and thumb on her left hand. Her employer brought her to a doctor who performed a poor surgery on her hand, cutting off her toe from her right foot and meat from her right leg in order to repair the hand. Before her surgery was fully completed, the employer and broker intimidated Quynh and forced her to sign papers agreeing to return to Vietnam.

After appealing to the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) in Taipei and Taoyuan County Labor and Human Resources Department, Quynh’s employer admitted to forcing Quynh to illegally work in the factory and sign papers agreeing to return to Vietnam. Verbally abusing and starving her, the broker harassed, threatened, and forced Quynh to return to Vietnam claiming she volunteered to be repatriated. Almost a year after the surgery, Quynh’s hand, foot, and leg continue to cause her pain and she is now in need of further micro-surgery to enhance the aesthetic appearance and alleviate the physical pain she experiences. VBMWO also found legal assistance for her through the Legal Aid Foundation to press charges. Quynh is now back in Taiwan suing for additional compensation for her injury, medication, and loss of future income due to an injury that has left her physically maimed. While she is currently awaiting her next court date, Quynh is in urgent need of medical care and microsurgery in order to repair the damage done to her body.

The physical deformity of Quynh’s left hand.

Recently, Quynh revealed her story at a press conference in Taipei where many other foreign laborers, anti-human trafficking groups, and NGOs gathered to discuss Taiwan’s foreign labor issues. As Quynh told her incredible story between gulps of tears, it was apparent that there was not a single soul unmoved by her words, strength in character, and fearless spirit. Straining to hold back the tears myself, I realized in that moment that the host of intimately painful challenges Quynh and many other victims of trafficking face everyday include problems beyond simply the physical ones, such as loss of friendships, emotional stress, depression, post-traumatic disorder, and isolation. In addition, victims also endure the heavy burdens of financial, legal, and political ramifications of battling for their due rights. Not unlike many others at VBMWO’s shelter, Quynh often says in a matter-of-fact way: “When I go back to Vietnam, many in my neighborhood do not care to have anything to do with me because they say I am like a foreigner going away to work and of course because of my hand. But it saddens me because I can’t help my mom and dad, and I don’t have that much money to show for anything, I don’t have any work, and the friends I had before- there aren’t that many left who still want to talk to me.” As one of the most vulnerable members of our society, trafficked brides and migrant workers are denied the most basic aspects of human rights and individual entitlement to freedom.

In the overwhelming pile of other cases like hers that come through this office, Quynh’s story is not uncommon among the sea of other victims in that they all suffer from the lack of uniformity of Taiwan’s policies on foreign laborers and brides. For most of the brides and foreign laborers that come to Taiwan seeking a decent wage and a better life, many have chosen to endure the abuses of modern day slavery, while other trafficked victims seek assistance from offices such as VBMWO. Yet on both sides of the coin, there are disadvantages that restrict victims from achieving the goals they hoped for in coming to Taiwan. Many victimized foreign laborers endure illegal deductions from wages, domestic violence, abuse, trafficking, and a host of other human rights violations due to insufficient knowledge on their rights, pressure to send money back home, and fears of being repatriated or discharged from work. Thus, trafficked foreign laborers are often further entrapped into illegal working conditions for fear that assistance from offices such as VBMWO will cause them to be repatriated back to Vietnam, further abused, or incriminated by government authorities.

With over 300,000 foreign laborers in Taiwan, Dao Thi Quynh’s story exemplifies an explicit case of human trafficking and violation of basic human rights that cannot continue to be ignored. Beyond just a victim, Quynh is a survivor with hopes, dreams, and aspirations for helping others like herself as she says, “If I could tell everyone in Vietnam something, I would urge them not to come to Taiwan, there is no need to leave your homeland, just work and study hard there and you will be better off”. Yet unfortunately for those seeking temporary work in Taiwan to feed their impoverished families at home, the prospect of being trafficked into a position of extreme vulnerability and human slavery seem to be the furthest thought from one’s mind.

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